Infiltrating the sterile

with the felt truth of bodies.

Aman Kaleem is a filmmaker and design engineer whose practice inserts what dominant systems seek to exclude—messy data, radical bodies, and dissent—into sterile architectures.

Aman Kaleem is a filmmaker, visual, and new media artist. Her work addresses issues of gender, freedom of speech, and political conflicts. With a specialization from AJK Mass Communication and Research Center, she has directed and produced internationally screened documentaries like 'Shaadi, sex aur Parivaar' and 'We the People'.

Her practice engages with unconventional materials: imperfect datasets, machine learning algorithms, the kinetics of human movement, and the organic growth patterns of moss. She tells stories of flawed bodies that choose to be the way they grow, building neural networks from scratch as an infiltration of art.

As a visual art fellow at Harvard University (2018–2019), she explored emerging technologies in storytelling. Her exhibition, "Shaping the Ordinary Through Love and Dreams," held in Cambridge, delved into themes of love, rebellion, and the transient nature of South Asian existence. Later, as a graduate student at Harvard Graduate School of Design and John A. Paulson School of Engineering, co-registered at MIT (2021–2024), she continues to explore memory, violence, and social consciousness through machine learning, visual computing, and AI.

Fellowships

Current Focus

Design Engineering @ Harvard & MIT

Fellowships

  • MDE Merit Scholarship, Harvard [2023]
  • Harvard EDIB Fellowship [2023]
  • Harvard Visiting Artist Fellow [2018]
  • Fulbright Fellowship Nominee [2017]
  • Aspen Emerging Women Leaders [2018]
  • Art Entrepreneur in Residence, Ashoka [2017]
  • Young India Fellowship [2012–2013]

Awards

  • Make a Difference Leader — UN & Govt. of India [2015]
  • Young Leader Award — J&K [2014]
  • Girls — 12 Film Festival Wins [2023–2024]
  • Sundance New Frontier Finalist [2019]
  • EDN Best Pitch [2018]
  • Madrid Best Director [2024]
  • Seattle Best Experimental [2024]
  • US Patent No. 63/867,218 [2024]

Grants

  • Govt. of India — Marriage, Sex & Family [2016]
  • Govt. of India — Angels of Stone [2014]
  • PSBT Grant — Angels of Stone [2014]
  • BMGF Project Grant [2018]
  • MacArthur Change Mgmt Grant [2018]
  • NITI Aayog National Fund [2019]